The millimeter-wave band has the available spectrum and is capable of providing significantly higher-level throughputs than the microwave frequency band. Due to significantly higher attenuation levels and the directional nature of millimeter-wave signals, millimeter-wave devices (i.e., stations) generally employ highly-directional antennas as well as beamforming techniques for communicating. Some key usages of the millimeter-wave frequency band may include transmissions to a wireless display, wireless docking, sync & go, real-time video streaming, and high-definition television (HDTV) streaming, among others. To enable these key usages, millimeter-wave devices may need to discover each other and exchange capability and service information. This is more difficult in a millimeter-wave network due to the need for highly-directional antennas and beamforming techniques.
Thus, there are general needs for millimeter-wave stations and methods for station and information discovery in a millimeter-wave network. What is also needed is a simplified and unified frame-format scheme for both station and information discovery suitable for use in a millimeter-wave WPAN or in a millimeter-wave WLAN.